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Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Jack’s Back

I’ve been working late pretty steadily since I got back from vacation, including yesterday, so I just now got around to watching the first hour of the premiere of 24: Live Another Day. (And the second hour will have to wait a while longer, as I have got to hit the sack.)

I thought it was off to a bit of a slow start, but as with most series premieres—or even premieres of mini-series resurrecting old favorites—there are a lot of moving pieces to put into place, and a lot of characters to introduce.

In this case, of course, many of the characters only had to be re-introduced, but we still have to figure out where they are now and how they fit in with the newbies. And we got a good first look at all that, as Jack Bauer swooped in after four years to save the person who is probably his best friend in the entire world, Chloe O’Brian. It didn’t look like an overly joyful reunion of the two, though, so it seems likely that Jack will not get a lot of props for putting himself in harm’s way to break her out of her predicament. That’s nothing new for Jack, though; he seems destined to be a fugitive of one sort or another, just for trying to do what he believes is the right thing.

The thing about “the right thing” for Jack Bauer, though, is that it very often comes down to simply the lesser of the evils, because he always finds himself in situations where there really isn’t a good solution. And it doesn’t look like that’s going to change during this limited event series, either. The political backdrop of this twenty-four hour installment (even though it’s only twelve hours of airtime this go ‘round) is the timely story of unmanned drones. The president is in London trying to negotiate some sort of treaty, and the first hour ends with a drone malfunctioning and targeting the American military men it’s supposed to be helping to protect.

But this is 24, so of course the “malfunction” is certainly some sort of terror act, and that will begin the real drama that’s going to require Jack to swing into action and really save the day. All while he’s being hunted, no doubt, because he is currently wanted as a traitor. Life’s not easy when you’re Jack Bauer, but he just keeps doing what he does, knowing things will work out until they don’t.